Raisel Roset:
He was in the occup— . . . he was in the occupied parts of Poland, and when the German-Russian war broke out . . . since then there was no word from him; and now, unfortunately, I have learned that he had fallen.

David Boder:
. . . had fallen.

Raisel Roset:
He has perished, he was put to death.

David Boder:
Where?

Raisel Roset:
That I don't know yet.

David Boder:
So how were you informed?

Raisel Roset:
I learned about it. A cousin from Poland has notified me about it.

Raisel Roset:
There were a few days, the Germans came in the 6th of ________. After a few days they left Janow and the Russians came in.

David Boder:
Ah.

Raisel Roset:
And then my husband went away with them[?] As president of the Zionist organization—and they were the first to be sent to concentration camps, so he left together with the Russians, for Dubno [?].

Raisel Roset:
I ran to a Polish family I knew, and there I was six weeks. Afterwards, they did not want to keep me any more, because they were also in danger from the Germans if I should be found with them. So I picked up my kit and kaboodle and wandered on. So I went to Czestochowa. In Czestochowa I was a few weeks, rambled around, a day here, a night there [nit getogt, nit gen chtigt] in the cold, wandering day long in the streets, it was hard to find a room. And I saw that this neither was a solution for me, and I went back to the Jew-lager.

Raisel Roset:
In the Jewish ghetto again the suffering began. Again deportations. I . . . they registered me for work in an ammunition factory. There I worked five months.

David Boder:
Yes.

Raisel Roset:
Afterwards I heard [a rumor] that there will be a selection. The older ones. They of course would be sent to gas chambers, and the younger ones were to remain. And I as an older women understood that the end was coming.

David Boder:
Yes.

Raisel Roset:
So I again started to look for means of salvation . . . I got myself again Aryan papers and escaped from Czestochowa. And then I was deported from the Polish side to Germany as an Aryan [woman], for work. There . . .

David Boder:
The Americans? [She could have been left in a DP camp in Germany].

Raisel Roset:
Yes.

David Boder:
Why?

Raisel Roset:
I pleaded with them, I want to go to France. I don't want to be anymore with the Germans, and work for them further . . .

David Boder:
Yes.

Raisel Roset:
Here I learned of my great misfortune.

David Boder:
Yes.

Raisel Roset:
I learned about my whole family. From a large [?] family I remained the only one. And my sisters and bothers, and children and everybody. And the worst I learned was that my man was killed as I have told you.

David Boder:
Ah. Now tell me Mrs. Roset, what was you husband's occupation before?

Raisel Roset:
That was a lager . . . when the action was made in Czestochowa, they left from fifty thousand Jews—[a mere] four thousand.

David Boder:
And what happened to the others.

Raisel Roset:
The others were sent away to the crematories and the gas chambers. And they assigned for these four thousand a small part of the city, a few small streets; these were fenced in with barbed wire, and there they lived. The workers from Janow [??] had to work all the time in the factories.

David Boder:
In what kind of factories did they work?

Raisel Roset:
They worked in the Norovitz [??] factory, and worked in the factory Hossak [??] . . .

David Boder:
What?

Raisel Roset:
Hossak, a munition factory.

David Boder:
You say Norovitz's factory . . . ?

Raisel Roset:
Norovitz's.

David Boder:
Who was Norovitz?

Raisel Roset:
All factories were converted in munition factories, of course.

David Boder:
Ah, yes. And there, . . .

Raisel Roset:
And there the Jews worked. And afterwards selections were taking place, deportations took place. Some were deported, others . . . they acted, of course, they way they pleased.

David Boder:
Yes. Now tell me, in these . . . you worked in a factory, and where did you sleep at night?

Raisel Roset:
At seven in the morning one had to be in the factory.

David Boder:
Yes.

Raisel Roset:
That was a few kilometers away. At six in the morning the gates of the ghetto were opened, for the labor lager. All workers were let out, and they would go to work. Seven o'clock in the evening, they would return home into the lager [ghetto and lager are apparently used interchangeably]. And there everybody had his corner [then follows the Hebrew word for place—mokum].

David Boder:
What?

Raisel Roset:
The mokum, which everybody was given, there one lived.

David Boder:
Aha. Now tell where did they eat.

Raisel Roset:
They ate at the factory.

David Boder:
In the morning, and . . . ?

Raisel Roset:
In the morning, and at midday . . .

David Boder:
Did they pay any money for the work?

Raisel Roset:
They did not pay. I am telling you. They only gave food.

David Boder:
Well if one needed something, some soap, cigarets, or such things . . .

Raisel Roset:
[she mumbles something like] We got nothing.

David Boder:
Nothing [??].

Raisel Roset:
[an emotional sentence—not clear]

David Boder:
Yes. Did the Jews have there their prayer meetings, their synagogues? Did they have that in the ghetto?

David Boder:
Were they compelling you . . . did they want you to go to church, did they?

Raisel Roset:
Yes, I went a few times . . .

David Boder:
To the Catholic [church]?

Raisel Roset:
Yes.

David Boder:
Nu. Tell me, did they treat the Poles the same way as the Jews?

Raisel Roset:
Oh . . . no. The Poles were deported just for work, but the Jews were killed; very simply.

David Boder:
But . . .

Raisel Roset:
The Jews, when they were deported, were deported to the gas chambers, to the crematories. When the Poles were deported, they were deported to Germany, for work. That is why I had the Aryan papers, so that I should not be sent away . . .

David Boder:
Aha . . . and then you came to Paris, and here you came to whom?

Raisel Roset:
Here . . . I told you, I came to a French shelter; from there I was reported to the Polish consulate; and there I told them that I was a Jewess, and I asked them for an address of a Jewish society because I wanted . . . and so they gave it to me, and I went to . . . Boulevard d'Italien.

David Boder:
What was there?

Raisel Roset:
Yes. The Jewish society, and they later placed me in Famille [two words not clear] that was a home for the deported, and there I stayed for a considerable time.

David Boder:
Yes. And the, where do you live now?

Raisel Roset:
Now . . . afterwards, I was assigned to various bureaus [the last few words are not clear] and I went over to live on _______________ [she gives an address in French].

David Boder:
And what is that?

Raisel Roset:
. . . where I live up to this day.

David Boder:
And what is that? A private [place/?

Raisel Roset:
Now there is . . . no, that too was a home for the deported, but afterwards the consistoire has taken it over; because there is a seminary, a Rabbi's seminary.

David Boder:
Aha . . .

Raisel Roset:
. . . and I . . . I requested that they give me work, and I remained living there.

David Boder:
And what kind of work are you doing?

Raisel Roset:
As a cook.

David Boder:
You work there as a cook . . . you are cooking there . . . and you are coming here in the evening?

David Boder:
Corsets . . . and after you have learned it, what do you want to do?

Raisel Roset:
I have registered already a year ago to go to Palestine . . .

David Boder:
You have registered to go to Pales— . . .

Raisel Roset:
Yes . . . long ago [??] have I registered . . .

David Boder:
Whom do you have in Palestine?

Raisel Roset:
There I have a cousin [feminine].

David Boder:
Have you written to her?

Raisel Roset:
Yes.

David Boder:
Does she want you to come?

Raisel Roset:
But of course.

David Boder:
With your experience in farm work it should be all right.

Raisel Roset:
Oh yes, I should do it gladly, but what can I do, if I still have no permit to go . . .

David Boder:
Oh, now it will come soon . . . [Note: During the first few interviews an exploratory attempt was made to give the TAT. This was given up because it was time consuming, and did not directly fit into the plans of the project. —D.P.B.]

David Boder:
Will you do me a favor . . . I am a professor, and I am making a study of these things . . . you see this picture? What do you think it is, what is it about?

Raisel Roset:
What it is? [not clear]

David Boder:
Yes, what does it mean? What do you think it is, or could it be?

Raisel Roset:
Possibly a mother who has lost her children.

David Boder:
A mother who has lost her children. And what is this?

Raisel Roset:
That is a boy, a child.

David Boder:
Yes . . . and what is it about?

Raisel Roset:
He thinks of a melody.

David Boder:
Hm. And this?

Raisel Roset:
That is a dying [person]

David Boder:
Yes . . .

Raisel Roset:
And he . . . they bless him.

David Boder:
Hm . . . and this?

Raisel Roset:
[In a solemn tone] People are running away from somewhere.

David Boder:
Hm . . .

Raisel Roset:
People are running away from somewhere. [Unfortunately the number of the card has not been recorded].

Established in April 1941, it was largely liquidated in September-October 1942 and the survivors sent to the Treblinka concentration camp. A "Small Ghetto" of around 5000 remained of the strongest and best-educated, but these were dispersed or liquidated as well by July 1943.

Zionist.
Having to do with the international political movement known as Zionism that supports a homeland for the Jewish people in the Land of Israel. The word "Zionism" is derived from the word "Zion"—one of the names of Jerusalem and the Land of Israel as mentioned in the Bible.

Aryan.
Derived from a Sanskrit word meaning “noble,” the term was used in Nazi pseudo-scientific jargon to denote a race which had supposedly superior blood and culture. During the Holocaust, “Aryan” came to mean anyone who was not Jewish or Roma (Gypsy).

ghetto.
A Yiddish word referring to a walled section of a city in which Jews were required to live during the Middle Ages. The concept was revived by the Nazi regime as part of the "Final Solution" to the "Jewish Question."

ORT.
Acronym for the Russian, Society for Handicrafts and Agricultural Work. Founded in 1880 by Russian Jews, its goal was to promote and develop vocational training in skilled trades and agriculture among Jews. Following the Holocaust, ORT ran programs in Displaced Persons camps and in western European countries, especially in France.